The present application relates to blimps and more particularly to an improved system for controlling the flight direction of a blimp.
Blimps continue to be used in the present day. In addition to continuing to be a mode of transportation, blimps nowadays serve an important use for advertising purposes. Advertising messages are displayed on the sides of airborne blimps that fly over locations or events where large crowds of people gather, for example, at stadiums, beaches, etc. Blimps may be manned, i.e. include a pilot and/or passengers or un-manned. Unmanned blimps are operated remotely from the ground by radio-control. Radio-controlled blimps can be made smaller since they do not have to carry human passengers.
Blimps generally use one or more motor driven propellers for propulsion. A conventional method for controlling the flight direction of a blimp is to provide a movable rudder located on a bottom side of the blimp fuselage near the tail end of the blimp. It is also conventional to provide that the propellers can be pivoted vertically, i.e. about a horizontal axis, to assist in climbing and descent. Other methods for controlling flight direction of blimps have been disclosed. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,656, a miniblimp has a propeller connected to one motor that can turn it left or right and another motor to tilt the propeller up or down. The miniblimp has a fixed rudder, however, and positions the propeller at either the front or rear of the miniblimp.
There continues to be a need for a flight direction control system for lighter-than-air aircraft, such as blimps, that provides improved control and responsiveness under a variety of climatological conditions.